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Is it possible to sell membership plans on a website using shopify?

I have a client who wants to sell memberships on a website that is not a shopify store. They insist on using Shopify to handle the paid membership because they have separate shopify store. I am struggling to determine if this is feasible.

The plan is to create a product named "membership" and utilize Appstle to manage the subscriptions. On the website, we would utilize the Shopify/Appstle API and webhooks to synchronize the user’s membership status. I have searched for examples of a similar approach but haven’t found any.

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  1. Chosen as BEST ANSWER
    0

    Answering my own question in hopes it helps others.

    This is how we accomplished selling memberships using Shopify on an external website:

    1. We used the Appstle Memberships app.
    2. Created desired products/memberships (Premium, Ultimate, etc.) and followed Appstle’s documentation to configure them.
    3. We didn't want to sell these memberships on the shop store directly, so we created a sales channel with appropriate API access and limited memberships to the sales channel.
    4. Using the API and the Shopify checkout URLs, we allowed customers to purchase memberships.
    5. Used Appstle hooks to trigger events in our systems to update users' membership information upon successful checkout.
    6. Customized the shop checkout experience to redirect the user to a callback URL to verify their purchase.

    We decided to use the Appstle Memberships app to sell memberships.


  2. 0

    I would look at it this way. Shopify has structured itself for many years to try and get away from the "You must use a Shopify store" to sell things. Hence you can now sell on eBay, Amazon, and almost any other sales channel you want. You have the buy button. Basically as Tobi once said, if it runs code, you can sell your Shopify item on it.

    So you have to embrace that by doing your homework. If your client insists on selling something of theirs on a website that is NOT Shopify, this fits what Shopify pushes. That website is just a sales channel.

    So at a minimum, you can whip up a Sales Channel App, and use that pattern. And of course, if you understand Shopify well enough, you could probably also try some other patterns. It is on you.

    I caution you against thinking you’ll just find an App to do it all for you though. You might! It might even be 99% perfect! But I sense you’re unique needed here will be serviced best by something you craft specifically for this store. Especially in light of wanting to sell subscriptions.

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